On behalf of the Rakudo development team, I’m very happy to announce the
November 2018 release of Rakudo Perl 6 #128. Rakudo is an implementation of
Perl 6 on the Moar Virtual Machine[^1].

This release implements 6.c and 6.d versions of the Perl 6 specification.
6.c version of the language is available if you use the use v6.c
version pragma, otherwise 6.d is the default.

Upcoming releases in 2018 will include new functionality that is not
part of 6.c or 6.d specifications, available with a lexically scoped
pragma. Our goal is to ensure that anything that is tested as part of
6.c and 6.d specifications will continue to work unchanged. There may
be incremental spec releases this year as well.

Additionally, we invite you to make a donation to The Perl Foundation
to sponsor Perl 6 development: https://donate.perlfoundation.org/
(put “Perl 6 Core Development Fund” in the ‘Purpose’ text field)

The next release of Rakudo (#129), is tentatively scheduled for 2018-12-15.

A list of the other planned release dates is available in the
“docs/release_guide.pod” file.

The development team appreciates feedback! If you’re using Rakudo, do
get back to us. Questions, comments, suggestions for improvements, cool
discoveries, incredible hacks, or any other feedback – get in touch with
us through (the above-mentioned) mailing list or IRC channel. Enjoy!

Please note that recent releases have known issues running on the JVM.
We are working to get the JVM backend working again but do not yet have
an estimated delivery date.

[^2]: What’s the difference between the Rakudo compiler and the Rakudo
Star distribution?

The Rakudo compiler is a compiler for the Perl 6 language.
Not much more.

The Rakudo Star distribution is the Rakudo compiler plus a selection
of useful Perl 6 modules, a module installer, Perl 6 introductory
documentation, and other software that can be used with the Rakudo
compiler to enhance its utility.